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It's A Wonderful Holiday Lineup

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2008

TAMPA - In "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," Brooke Burns plays a modern-day Scrooge, a cynical, working single mom with a 6-year-old who doesn't believe in Santa.

There's no Christmas at her house until crusty eccentric uncle Ralph (Henry Winkler) brings a handsome drifter into their lives. Romance and the holiday spirit are restored in this new TV movie debuting at 9 p.m. Dec. 13 on the Hallmark Channel.

Call it corny, schmaltzy, sugarcoated, predictable and cliché-ridden, but this is the kind of made-for-holiday movie we get every season. The film is one of five new Christmas movies coming to Hallmark on Saturdays this holiday season.

The cable networks have picked up the slack now that the broadcast networks have just about stopped making TV movies.

Lifetime, for example, has three new romantic mistletoe and holly films, including "A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride" (9 p.m. Dec. 20), starring Tampa native JoAnna Garcia.

She plays a single woman who finds romance (with Luke Perry) while trying to sabotage her mother's remarriage.

ABC Family brings back its annual "25 Days of Christmas" programming, which includes the new holiday comedy "Snow 2: Brain Freeze." Tom Cavanagh stars as a Santa who loses his memory in the film debuting at 8 p.m. Dec. 14.

Hallmark's ratings jump every Christmas, and it's no surprise, says the network's vice president of programming David Kenin.

"The holidays are at the heart of the Hallmark brand — they represent family, celebrations and being together," he says.

The onslaught of holiday programming gets into full swing this week with traditional offerings such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday morning at 9 on NBC.

Old favorites such as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story" will be back along with some new specials such as political humorist Stephen Colbert's good-natured, self-mocking "A Colbert Christmas," which airs at 10 tonight on Comedy Central.

There's too much holiday programming to list here because every Christmas movie in existence can be found somewhere in the television universe. A more detailed list can be found at TBOextra.com.

Here is a selected roundup of some holiday treats coming to a TV screen near you:

The Classics

"It's a Wonderful Life" returns at 8 p.m. Dec.13 and 24 on NBC. On Christmas Eve, a discouraged small-town banker (Jimmy Stewart) is saved from suicide by a second-class angel in this 1946 Frank Capra film.

"A Christmas Story" repeats often in a 24-hour marathon that begins at 8 p.m. Dec. 24 on TBS. The late Jean Shepherd narrates this endearing 1983 holiday film based on his writings about a Christmas in the 1940s and Ralphie's desire for a Red Ryder BB gun.

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" returns at 8 p.m. Dec. 3 to CBS. Rudolph goes from freak to hero in the 44th annual showing of this animated adventure..

"Frosty the Snowman" is set for 8 p.m. Dec. 12 on CBS. Jimmy Durante narrates another animated classic based on a song.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" airs at 8 p.m. Dec. 8 and 16 on ABC. The 1965 Peanuts story has never lost its charm.

"A Christmas Carol," at 6:15 a.m. Dec. 24 on Turner Classic Movies, kicks off a marathon of holiday oldies. The 1938 version with Reginald Owen is followed by holiday films such as "Christmas in Connecticut" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner."

New This Year

"Moonlight & Mistletoe" debuts at 9 p.m. Saturday on Lifetime. Tom Arnold stars as the owner of Santaville, a year-round attraction in a small Vermont town facing hard economic times.

"Wonder Pets Save the Nutcracker," debuting at 8 p.m. Dec. 8 on Nickelodeon, has the animated animal superheroes going to the ballet.

"Flirting With Forty," at 9 p.m. Dec. 6 on Lifetime, stars Heather Locklear as a lonely divorcée who falls in love with a young hunk, Robert Buckley ("Lipstick Jungle"), during a Hawaiian vacation.

"The Christmas Choir" premieres at 9 p.m. Dec. 6 on Hallmark. Jason Gedrick stars as a workaholic accountant who learns the meaning of the holiday after starting a choir at a homeless shelter.

"Macy's Presents Little Spirit: Christmas in New York" airs 8 p.m. Dec. 10 on ABC. Danny DeVito, Lucy Liu and NBC News' Brian Williams lend their voices to the new animated musical about a magical "Spirit" creature who helps a boy find a lost dog.

"Will You Merry Me?" at 9 p.m. Dec. 13 on Lifetime, has Wendie Malick ("Just Shoot Me") and Cynthia Stevenson ("Men in Trees") facing conflicting family holidays.

"The Miser Brothers Christmas," at 8 p.m. Dec. 13 on ABC Family, is a new stop-action animated sequel to the classic "Year Without Santa Claus."

"Letters to Santa: A Muppets Christmas" debuts at 8 p.m. Dec. 17 on NBC. On Christmas Eve, Kermit, Fozzie, Miss Piggy and the rest of the gang mistakenly avert three letters from making their way to Santa Claus. It features original songs and guest stars.

"Christmas in Wonderland" debuts at 8 p.m. Dec. 20 on ABC Family. Patrick Swayze, Carmen Electra, Tim Curry and Chris Kattan star in a comedy about a family trying to thwart bumbling crooks in a mall.

"Our First Christmas" airs at 9 p.m. Dec. 20 on Hallmark. A pair of newlyweds with children from previous marriages struggle for a blended Christmas.

"A Kiss at Midnight," at 9 p.m. Dec. 27 on Hallmark, stars Faith Ford as a personal matchmaker struggling to compete with online dating services.

Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.

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